The city of Kyoto is offering free admission to the Kyoto Bunka Hakubutsukan (Museum of Kyoto) and three other tourism facilities to visitors wearing kimono, the Japanese national costume. In this way they hope to promote the
Japanese kimono industry, many of whose finest practitioners are based in
the city, as well as to promote tourism during the late autumn months from
October through mid-December. More visitors clad in kimono are expected to
enhance the chic and elegant atmosphere of this ancient capital city. There
will be ‘kimono clinics’ set up at several locations to provide ‘first
aid’ to those novice kimono wearers whose belts have loosened. Overseas
visitors are sure to enjoy the colorful spectacle, and may even care to
experience wearing kimono and recreate the feel of living in Kyoto a century
or two ago?

The Kimono industry is currently faced with a serious shortage of trainees
and newly-qualified young craftsmen. One of Kyoto’s programs to reawaken
interest in the profession has been to invite around ten traditional textile
craftsmen aged below 40, and to send them to Monza in northern Italy, a
renowned center for silk textiles, to study overseas marketing techniques
and acquire new product development skills. On their return, the young
craftsmen are expected to help develop new products based on and preserving
traditional local techniques, but with international market appeal. One
example of a local craft on the verge of disappearing is velvet making, with
only a handful of aging craftsmen still working. To help to stem the decline
of this and other local specialties such as Nishijin silk brocade and Kyo
Yuzen dying techniques, technical information and images will be digitally
stored and archived, to provide a knowledge and skill databank for future
students and practitioners.